MUMBAI: The charge of murder and theories of her disturbed past has created a virtual rift between the accused Indrani Mukerjea and her high profile husband Peter Mukerjea, former CEO of Star India, as it was indicated during the hearing on Indrani’s custody at Bandra court here on Monday.
Peter had frantically called up a number of people to save Indrani when the city police arrested her on August 25, in connection with the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora on April 24, 2012.
Almost a week later, on Monday, Peter not only chose to stay away from the court but also did not provide any legal assistance to his wife. Indrani had roped in her own lawyer to get her out of police custody.
Interestingly, Peter had admitted four days ago that he overlooked his son’s observations against Indrani as he trusted his wife more than his son.
Meanwhile, Indrani’s lawyer tried hard but could not convince the court to remand her in judicial custody. If she was remanded in judicial, her lawyers could have applied for bail as per judicial norms. The court, however, dismissed the arguments and extended Indrani’s police custody till September 5. The police custody of other two accused, Indrani’s former husband Sanjeev Khanna and her driver Shyam Rai was also extended till September 5 .
Indrani’s lawyer had argued that her basic rights were being violated in police custody. He alleged that the cops slapped her and did not allow him to meet her for even a minute in private which was her right. He also claimed that Indrani had bruises on her swollen face. However, he has not filed any formal complaint against the alleged torture.
The police presented Indrani in the court room with her face covered with a stroll. Initially, she appeared calm and quiet but as soon as the Judge ordered to unmask her face emotions started flowing on her face. She controlled herself after her daughter Vidhie hugged her and broke down.
Skype Conspiracy
The remand application filed by the police detailing reasons for police custody of the accused threw some light on their course of investigation as well as an interesting point that Indrani and Sanjeev were in contact over the social networking website, Skype since a couple of years.Police claim that the conspiracy to kill Sheena was hatched by Indrani and Khanna conversing on Skype. They were trying to retrieve the conversation.
The remand application also stated that police wanted to recover Sheena’s mobile phone from Indrani.